White House Meme-ifies and Game-ifies War

March 16—Since the Feb. 28 start of Operation Epic Fury, the White House has increasingly used footage from video games, cartoons, and action movies in an attempt to win public support for the war against Iran. The White House has posted over 100 videos on TikTok and X, which at the beginning were mostly videos of speeches by administration officials. However, these early political videos were considered to be ineffective, so four days into the war, the Administration changed tactics and began to include video clips from video games, cartoons, and action movies—mixing it all with videos of actual military strikes on Iran. According to the Wall Street Journal, the White House has a team of 15 to 20 people, mostly in their twenties, creating this video content. The majority of Americans are still against the war, but viewership is up 60% compared to the earlier videos.

At least eight posts include video clips of Israeli strikes. Others contain clips from military recruitment videos, popular TV shows, video games such as “Call of Duty,” historic moments in sports, and Hollywood movies like “Tropic Thunder.” In total, there are video clips from at least 11 movies, 5 TV shows, and 4 video games. Several Hollywood studios and actors have spoken out against using their content without permission, and often stressing that the videos do not reflect their own views